#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the Phoenix Suns After 2019-20
How does every NBA player stack up coming out of the 2019-20 playoffs?
That’s the question NBA Math staff members and contributors sought to answer, ranking each and every player in the Association on a 1-to-12 scale and then seeing who emerged with the highest averages. The distant past was irrelevant. Long-term potential doesn’t matter. Only the level at which we expected them to play right after the conclusion of 2019-20 matters, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured, so long as they logged even a single minute during the regular season or playoffs.
All players—classified by the team for which they last appeared, even if they were since waived or released in some alternative fashion—were graded on the following scale by each evaluator, and ties between players with identical averages were broken by sorting the scores from best to worst and propping up the men who had the highest mark at any point in the top-down progression:
- Shouldn’t Get Minutes
- End-of-Bench Pieces
- Depth Pieces
- High-End Backups
- Low-End Starters
- Solid Starters
- High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
- All-Star Candidates
- All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
- Lesser MVP Candidates
- MVP Frontrunners
- Best Player in the League (only one player could earn this grade on each ballot)
Now, for the Phoenix Suns:
Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49
18. Jared Harper: 1.14
17. Tariq Owens: 1.2
16. Jalen Lecque: 1.43
End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49
15. Jonah Bolden: 1.57
14. Ty Jerome: 2.0
13. Cheick Diallo: 2.36
Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49
12. Elie Okobo: 2.57
11. Cameron Payne: 2.79
10. Jevon Carter: 2.93
9. Frank Kaminsky: 3.0
High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49
8. Cameron Johnson: 4.21
Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49
7. Dario Saric: 4.5
6. Aron Baynes: 4.64
5. Mikal Bridges: 5.36
4. Kelly Oubre Jr.: 5.36
Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49
3. Ricky Rubio: 6.0
2. Deandre Ayton: 6.29
High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49
None
All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49
None
All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49
- Devin Booker: 8.57
Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49
None
MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00
None
Many thanks to the following people for their participation in this project: Arjun Baradwaj, Tara Biggs, Ryan Blackburn, Jacob Bourne, Tony East, Dan Favale, Adam Fromal, Katie Heindl, Jordan McGillis, Tom Rende, Adam Spinella, Jordan Spyropoulos, Bryan Toporek, Matt Way and Nate Wolf.